More 3rd-, 4th-graders got zeros on written test questions: What it meant

Fred Smith is a test specialist and the main author of a SUNY New Paltz report criticizing the state's standardized testing for grades 3-8.
Mark Vergari, mvergari@lohud.com

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Fred Smith, a test specialist and the main author of a SUNY New Paltz report criticizing the state's standardized testing for grades 3-8, in his apartment in Riverdale.(Photo11: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)Buy Photo

Through the end of the year, staffers are looking back at and following up on articles and topics that resonated strongly with our readers in 2018, according to metrics on lohud.com. This column is part of that series:

Fred Smith is no anti-testing zealot. He was trained, in fact, as an early expert on educational statistics and assessment, and spent three decades working on testing for the New York City schools.

But it's always rankled him when politicians misuse testing or spin results to benefit some agenda. He spoke out against policies pushed by several NYC mayors and school chancellors — when doing so was not exactly a good career move.

Smith retired in 2002, but has continued to track state and city testing policies, and often doesn't like what he sees. At 75, he's working with the Benjamin Center at SUNY New Paltz to study and critique the results of the annual state assessment in math and English for grades 3-8, going back to the start of the test-centric Common Core era.

"It's a marathon, following this stuff," he said. "I try to help raise consciousness so that parents know what's going on. I hope I make a difference now and then."

Their first report focused on the growing percentages of students, starting with the first Common Core-based tests in 2013, who received zeroes on two types of English questions requiring written responses. The report concluded that high percentages of zeroes, particularly in the third and fourth grades, raised serious concerns about the quality and developmental appropriateness of many questions on the tests.

Smith's passion is reviewing the results of standardized assessments, in detail, to determine their statistical quality, the meaning that can be derived, and to improve future tests. He laments that the state Education Department and test-making giant Pearson released little information about the early Common Core-based tests, undermining public trust in Albany's so-called reforms.

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Common Core Task Force listens to concerns about the state standards and testing on Oct. 29. 2015, at its first public meeting held at the College of New Rochelle.(Photo11: File photo/The Journal News)

At the moment, he is peeved that the state has not released "technical reports," which contain the kind of data he loves, for its 2017 and 2018 assessments. These were the first tests developed under a five-year deal with Questar Assessments, which the state brought in after terminating its relationship with Pearson.

"We have to know what happened with the 2017 and '18 assessments, given the history," Smith said. "This stuff is all programmed. The data is sitting somewhere. Parents should be able to make informed decisions about their kids and these tests."

Education Department officials said reports from 2017 and 2018 will be posted as soon as they are complete.

Politics over research

How far back does Smith go? He got a job with the New York City schools' research bureau in 1969 (the year the Jets won Super Bowl III) and earned an early master's degree in educational assessment. Congress had created the Title I program in 1965 and required local evaluations of the new effort to distribute federal funds to schools in poor communities.

Smith worked on annual, one-hour reading assessments that developed into a "massive testing program" and served as a model for what was to come in New York state. At the same time, he couldn't help speaking out when politics overshadowed research.

In 1976, after Smith complained that the city was awarding testing contracts without bidding, the NYC comptroller's office stepped in and changed the rules.

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Fred Smith, a test specialist and the main author of a SUNY New Paltz report criticizing the state's standardized testing for grades 3-8, in his apartment in Riverdale.(Photo11: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

In 1980, he didn't like it when Mayor Ed Koch had his schools chancellor hold kids back if they scored a year or more behind grade level on annual tests.

"It was a policy without a program," Smith said. "What do you do with the kids held back?"

In 1988, he wrote a column explaining that city claims about its test results were false, including claims that NYC kids were doing better in reading than students nationally.

In 2007, already retired, Smith went after Mayor Michael Bloomberg for gaming the annual tests by exempting certain groups of students from taking them.

More recently, he's focused on the state assessments that became the engine of the Common Core era, designed to show that many students were not "college and career ready."

Leery of what's to come

"You can't argue with good standards or good assessments," Smith said. "But they were rushed and the implementation botched."

Smith and Jacobowitz's initial study found that the percentage of written answers scored a "0" on the third-grade English tests rose from 11 percent in 2012 (pre-Common Core tests) to 22 percent in 2016. Fourth-grade zeroes jumped from 5 percent in 2012 to a peak of 16 percent in 2015.

Jacobowitz said teachers and students had time to acclimate to the Common Core standards by 2016.

"This also lends legitimacy to parent and educator claims that the tests were not developmentally appropriate for young students," she wrote in an email.

But Emily DeSantis, spokeswoman for the state Board of Regents and Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia, said they have made key changes to the assessments based on feedback from parents, educators and others. Among them: reducing the math and English assessments from three days each to two; making the tests untimed; and releasing 75 percent of test questions.

"In addition, hundreds of New York state educators were involved in creating and reviewing questions for 2018 grades 3-8 ELA and math tests and selecting the questions for the test forms," DeSantis wrote in an email.

Smith said state officials shouldn't get credit for seeking public feedback after years of messing up state education policy. He's leery of what's to come when the state unveils new annual assessments tied to revised standards — now scheduled for spring 2021. And he's concerned about a rush to computerized testing.

Whatever happens, he'll be watching. He's a patient man, after 40 years of tabulating losses for the Jets.